Level of satisfaction with level 1 tech support from AD

[jwknecht]

Level of satisfaction with level 1 tech support from AD

Because I am curious to know how others perceive the level of support that they get by using the Alibre Design Incident Report on their website, I am making this poll.

FWIW, I am very disappointed with the responses to my support incidents.

 

[jwknecht]

Oh, I guess I should have said that Alibre Tech Support is Not Welcome to vote in this poll :!: Based on at least one of the votes, it looks like I can't stop that from happening. :roll:

 

[swertel]

There are some AA that are extremely good. Others appear to be new hires. Beyond just the anonymous poll, perhaps an experience or reason why you may be dissatisfied with support would help them to improve their services. When explaining your situation, please remove all personal references, including the AA# that was helping you. You can always contact Alibre via phone and talk to somewhere there if you have a valid complaint about a particular employee.

--Scott

 

[jwknecht]

Re:

There are some AA that are extremely good. Others appear to be new hires. Beyond just the anonymous poll, perhaps an experience or reason why you may be dissatisfied with support would help them to improve their services. When explaining your situation, please remove all personal references, including the AA# that was helping you. You can always contact Alibre via phone and talk to somewhere there if you have a valid complaint about a particular employee.

--Scott

But Scott, in order to do that... you need to get beyond the level 1 support. This is my frustration. I did not expect Alibre tech support to become "one of those" that we all become just another customer with another complaint. I don't get phone calls. Instead, I get more questions on the database, which I don't check; therefore, another day goes by.

If I am not getting the level of support from tech support that I expect, what is my next step?

 

[swertel]

The one thing that irks me is the reviewing open IRs. The web view is just not convenient to have in one giant table with only sorting ability. Give me searching and filtering ability please.

The reason why that irks me is because repeatedly I have filed an IR only to get the IR database updated by tech support and "waiting for customer input." No email was sent to me. No phone call requesting additional info. Not even a message through the Alibre messenger. I don't check my exhisting IRs very often because it is so inconvenient to do so. If tech support is only going to respond via the IR database, i.e. the web IR log for the user, then there needs to be a way to get automatically notified when the status of an IR changes.

 

[MilesH]

Re:

If tech support is only going to respond via the IR database, i.e. the web IR log for the user, then there needs to be a way to get automatically notified when the status of an IR changes.

I do agree with this. There used to be an email notification of updates before - it's needed even more now...

 

[siggy]

Yes - this is a major irritant to me as well. When I first started using AD I would get a direct email from support any time there was an update to my case. Now, it seems as if I have to drive the case by continually checking the incident page, hoping for an update, waiting patiently...

Robert

 

[figaro]

I tought it was a problem with my profile and/or configuration !! :shock:

Don't receive any notification from support AND forum (reply to a post).

Is this a new approach from Alibre ?

 

[barryhc]

The reported Status of "Closed, escelated to Dev", is insufficient. I need to know what development is or is not going to do with it.

"Escelated to Develpoment", means that support can't explain it.

"Closed" means nobody is going to explain it.

> Barry :shock:

 

[jtwhite]

Some parts of Alibre's support system work well but others need improvement.

Alibre assistant works reasonably well (at least during businness hours) for minor support questions and workarounds.

My expereince reporting incidents has been less helpful. In all cases the support tech responded to my incident within 24 hours with a solution or suggested workaround. That's great for problems caused by operator error but not so well for bugs or enhancement requests. The incident support staff's efficiency must be measured by how quickly they close incidents since all my bug reports and enchancement requests quickly show "Closed - referred to development" or Closed - Enhancement" as their status. Trouble is, there seems to be no further feedback and whether or not the bugs reported will be fixed or are just poorly documented features that have to be lived with or the enhancements are in the pipeline.

Something that is really missing is a way of seeing bug reports, workarounds and enhancement requests created as a result of incidents reported by others. The knowledge base could help with this but seems to be more of a Frequently Asked Questions tool than a true knowledge base. The best tool I've found for this is searching the User Forum.

 

[barryhc]

Re:

all my bug reports and enchancement requests quickly show "Closed - referred to development" or Closed - Enhancement" as their status. Trouble is, there seems to be no further feedback and whether or not the bugs reported will be fixed or are just poorly documented features that have to be lived with or the enhancements are in the pipeline.

Something that is really missing is a way of seeing bug reports, workarounds and enhancement requests created as a result of incidents reported by others. The knowledge base could help with this but seems to be more of a Frequently Asked Questions tool than a true knowledge base. The best tool I've found for this is searching the User Forum.

Exactamundo !

Here are my thoughts on accomplishing a similar information base, between users, without directly involving Support.

http://www.alibre.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=18668#18668

http://www.alibre.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=18686#18686

> Barry

 

[zzedexx]

being outside USA timezone means there is often no Alibre Assistant online when i am having a problem and look to see if there is someone who can help online. maybe some more international online assistants would make this better?

i have not had great results using Incident Reports but i acknowledge that part of this was due to me being unable to provide files for error checking due to specific company non-disclosure requirements on the stuff i was working on.

as already mentioned, the need to check back via the website all the time in the hope of a reply (aka. lack of notification system) is not very helpful.

 

[aa4]

How Esc to Dev and Enhancement incidents are handled

Anytime an incident is marked as Closed - Escalated to Development we create a defect/bug report detailed with as much information as we can gather from the user. Whenever possible we include a way to recreate the problem described as well as any example files that documents it. These reports then go into a queue which is reviewed and prioritized at the discretion of our Development department and then assigned accordingly.

First priority is given to critical issues that result in loss of data and/or impediment of critical work. Next, attention is given to other issues that affect most users but are less critical and last but not least attention is given to other less critical issues. Due to the volume of reports not all issues reported are solved as fast as we would like, but all of them will at least be reviewed.

Incidents marked Closed - Enhancement go into a separate bucket where the most requested features are grouped together and discussed by the Development department who along with the input from other departments will decide which enhancements to include on a given version as well as which reported issues to address. All problems addressed in a version are documented on the Readme file of the program under the "Problems Fixed section". The file is located on the Alibre Design installation folder. New enhancements are documented in the What's new section of our website for a given release, http://www.alibre.com/products/new-in-ad91.asp. I hope this clarifies the question.
Best regards,


aa48

 

[aa4]

I forgot to mention that we have changed the process so now anytime an incident is updated, a notification e-mail is sent to the account owner with a link back to the original incident.

 

[MilesH]

Re:

I forgot to mention that we have changed the process so now anytime an incident is updated, a notification e-mail is sent to the account owner with a link back to the original incident.

Thank you. Much appreciated.

 

[barryhc]

Re: How Esc to Dev and Enhancement incidents are handled

Thank you "aa4" for the carefully crafted response.

These reports then go into a queue which is reviewed and prioritized at the discretion of our Development department and then assigned accordingly.

First priority is given to critical issues that result in loss of data and/or impediment of critical work. Next, attention is given to other issues that affect most users but are less critical and last but not least attention is given to other less critical issues.

So we have at least . . . First, Next and Last. Or, High, Medium and Low. According to Greg's "80-20" rule, this sounds like:

First ( High ) . . . . 80% "Time proirity" > > "Impediment of Critical Work".
Next ( Medium ). . 15% > > "Workarounds OK for now"
Last ( Low ). . . . . 4% > > "Do you want that with cheese ?"

but all of them will at least be reviewed.

And 1% get "Trash-Canned".

I guess the percentages might be "off", but we get the picture. Sounds REALLY GOOD.

I forgot to mention that we have changed the process so now anytime an incident is updated, a notification e-mail is sent to the account owner with a link back to the original incident.

IF, an Incident is UPDATED, when it is Prioritized by Development, THEN Progress has been made.

IF a Priority Level is included when an Update Notification is sent to the Incident Owner, THEN many CLOUDS have been lifted from this issue.

Thanks > Barry

 

[swertel]

Last ( Low ). . . . . 4% > > "Do you want that with cheese ?"

I believe you meant to say "Do you want cheese with that whine?"

Gaspar, and others non-native English speakers, that is not a typo.

 

[jwknecht]

Hey, I am already seeing improvement. I hope that it is not just me.

I am getting calls regarding my incidents.

If you notice, not only do you get an autoreply for updates to the database, you get a link to a Customer Satisfaction Survey.

Please take the time to do those surveys!

 

[jemmej]

I didn't get a call but I did get...

1. An autoreply stating they had received my support incident.
2. A follow up e-mail requesting more information about my problem.

I alreadly like it. Improvement over before. Kudos to Alibre.

Jim